Svijet je lijep.

to be

Breakdown of Svijet je lijep.

• lijep: beautiful
• svijet: world

Questions & Answers about Svijet je lijep.

Why isn’t there a word like the in Svijet je lijep?

Croatian simply does not use articles (no a/an or the) as separate words.

Whether something is definite or indefinite is understood from context, word order, and extra words like ovaj (this), taj (that), onaj (that over there), etc.

So Svijet je lijep is normally understood as a general statement, the same way English would say The world is beautiful, even though there is no Croatian word corresponding to the here.

What grammatical case is svijet in, and how can I tell?

Svijet is in the nominative singular case.

Ways to see this:

• It is the subject of the sentence (the thing being talked about).
• In a simple sentence with biti (to be) like X je Y, both X and an adjective describing it are in the nominative.
• Masculine nouns in the nominative singular usually end in a consonant: svijet, grad, stol, pas.

So in Svijet je lijep, both svijet (noun) and lijep (adjective) are nominative singular.

What gender is svijet, and why does that matter for lijep?

Svijet is masculine.

In Croatian:

• Most nouns ending in a consonant (like svijet, grad, stol) are masculine.
• Nouns ending in -a are usually feminine.
• Many nouns ending in -o, -e are neuter.

Adjectives must agree with the noun in gender, number, and case. Since svijet is masculine singular nominative, the adjective must also be masculine singular nominative: lijep.

If the noun were feminine or neuter, the adjective would change:

• Kuća je lijepa. – The house is beautiful. (feminine)
• More je lijepo. – The sea is beautiful. (neuter)

Why is the adjective lijep, not lijepa or lijepo?

Because it is agreeing with svijet, which is masculine singular nominative.

Basic nominative singular forms of lijep (beautiful) are:

• Masculine: lijep
• Feminine: lijepa
• Neuter: lijepo

So:

• Svijet je lijep. – The world is beautiful. (masc.)
• Kuća je lijepa. – The house is beautiful. (fem.)
• More je lijepo. – The sea is beautiful. (neuter)

Change the noun’s gender, and the adjective must match it.

Do I always have to use je, or can I say Svijet lijep?

In normal, standard sentences you must use je here.

Je is the 3rd person singular form of biti (to be) in the present tense, so:

• Svijet je lijep. – The world is beautiful.

Leaving out je (Svijet lijep) would sound incomplete or very poetic/telegraphic, like a headline or a slogan. As a learner, you should always include je in sentences like this.

Can I change the word order, for example to Lijep je svijet? Does that change the meaning?

The basic, neutral word order is:

• Svijet je lijep. – Subject – verb – adjective (default, neutral).

You can say:

• Lijep je svijet.

This is grammatically correct but feels more emphatic or poetic, roughly like saying Beautiful is the world in English. It puts a bit more focus on lijep (beautiful) or has a stylistic, literary feel.

Some notes:

• Svijet lijep je is not normal; it sounds wrong.
• To make a yes–no question, you would normally say:
  • Je li svijet lijep? – Is the world beautiful?

So word order is flexible, but Svijet je lijep is the best standard choice.

How do you pronounce svijet and lijep?

For an English speaker, approximate them like this:

• svijet ≈ svyee‑et

  • s as in see
  • v is a soft v/w sound, between English v and w
  • j is like y in yes
  • ije together sounds roughly like ee‑ye
  • final t is clearly pronounced

• lijep ≈ lee‑yep

  • li like lee
  • j again like y in yes
  • e like e in bet
  • p as in pen

Very important: j in Croatian is never like English j in jam; it is always like y in yes.

Is Svijet je lijep closer to The world is beautiful or A world is beautiful?

It corresponds to The world is beautiful as a general statement.

Because Croatian has no articles, Svijet je lijep by itself is normally understood as:

• a general truth or comment about the world as we know it.

If you really wanted to talk about a world among many, you would usually make that explicit:

• Svaki svijet je lijep. – Every world is beautiful.
• Ovaj svijet je lijep. – This world is beautiful.

What is the difference between svijet and svet that I sometimes see?

It is mostly a difference between standard Croatian and other standards/varieties:

• svijet – standard in Croatian (and in Bosnian, Montenegrin) for world.
• svet – standard in Serbian (Ekavian pronunciation), and appears in some dialects.

If you are specifically learning Croatian, you should use svijet for world.

Be aware there is also a Croatian word svet meaning holy, sacred in combinations like:

• svetac – saint
• sveta voda – holy water

But the world in standard Croatian is svijet, not svet.

How would I say a beautiful world instead of The world is beautiful?

There is a difference between:

• Svijet je lijep. – The world is beautiful. (statement about the world)
• lijep svijet – a beautiful world (a noun phrase, used inside a larger sentence)

Examples:

• To je lijep svijet. – That is a beautiful world.
• Sanjam neki lijep svijet. – I dream of some beautiful world.

So:

• Svijet je lijep. = full sentence with is
• lijep svijet = noun phrase a beautiful world

Should svijet be capitalized?

You capitalize Svijet only when it is:

• the first word of a sentence, or
• part of a title.

Otherwise it is written with a lowercase s:

• Svijet je lijep. – at the start of the sentence, capital S
• Ovaj svijet je lijep. – in the middle, lowercase s

For the planet Earth, Croatian uses Zemlja with a capital Z when it clearly means the planet:

• Zemlja je lijepa. – Earth is beautiful.